Tips to Keep Your Marketing Emails from Getting Flagged as Spam!

Y’know, email marketers don’t have an easy job. After jumping through multiple spam traps, avoiding spam triggers, and not breaching any anti-spam laws, they finally get to your inbox along with a dozen other emails. With that being said, emails getting flagged as spam has increasingly become a problem. It’s just that email clients (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) have simply become stricter with filtering emails. More people are struggling to have to check the spam folder often due to their non-marketing emails ending up there.

But who can you blame? Spam emails have become a tough issue to crackdown. So, how does a completely fine marketing email end up getting flagged as spam? Here are a few reasons:

• Low user engagement makes the email service think you deem it as unimportant
• Your subject line is clickbait-y
• You didn’t include your postal address
• You forgot to include your “Unsubscribe” link

If any of these reasons ring true to you, we have the essential tips to point you in the right direction. Now, the effectiveness of these tips depends on many factors that could be out of our control. If at some point you feel like email marketing is taking more time and effort than it has to, then as an alternative, you can try out a few email marketing services to help you out.

So without further ado, here are eight (and one bonus) useful emailing tips to keep your important emails out of spam folders.

Tips to Keep Your Emails From Getting Flagged as Spam

#1 Start with a Good Email Service Provider (ESP)

This is very simple, but probably ignored. Spam filters are quick to recognize any unreliable or lesser-known ESPs. It’s not your ESP’s fault, spam filters are programmed to detect suspicion. To combat this, simply change your provider to one of the more popular ones like Gmail, Yahoo!, MSOutlook, ProtonMail, you know the rest.

#2 Use Their Name in the Subject Line

Using their name in the subject line significantly increases the chances of your email being read. Names make your emails look more personal. For some, it can be a bit against the norm but we’re trying not to end up getting flagged as spam here. For example, something with a subject line that goes: “This is your LAST chance to get the greatest offer ever!” sounds desperate over something only that says the recipient’s real name.

#3 Don’t Buy Email Lists!

The CAN-SPAM Act strictly suggests against the sale or purchase of email addresses in bulk. Not to mention the breach of terms of service of your ESP. 

Many of the people you send emails to will likely ignore the undesired emails. But, there could be a few do take action and you could be looking at some form of retaliation against you. It’s important to build your email list through ethical ways, and not hurt your company’s reputation.

#4 Try Email Testing

Rehearsing is always a good idea. Before sending out your emails, you can try Mail Tester, a website that lets you send emails to its own inbox to check for the likeliness of getting spammed while also improving deliverability.

#5 Let Loose of Those That Don’t Open

Some people will take to your emails with care, and some won’t. It’s just how it goes. People that don’t read your emails sit on your mailing list like snails on a pinewood tree, dragging your company’s reputation down.

ESPs take these ignored emails seriously, and soon ship these to spam without the user’s consent. It’s incredibly necessary that you voluntarily stop emailing them to not get spammed over and over, which will hurt your company’s domain name.

#6 Use Proper Etiquette

Proper etiquette doesn’t only matter in real life. Emails require this as well. Using proper grammar and punctuation with the right structure in your email body makes a lot of difference. Not to forget, it’s just as important to proofread your email before sending it out. And as a side note, don’t use a lot of exclamations as if to look like you’re shouting at the reader for some reason.  

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#7 Don’t Use Words That Trigger the Spam Filter

Words like billionaire, rich, cash, join, discount, free, etc. often come under the radar of spam filters, as you may already be able to suspect that the email might contain something fishy. As an alternative, you can use words like wealthy, no charge, x% off, become a member, etc. It’s important to know what might sound sketchy and what may not, and come up with good alternatives.

#8 Don’t Include Attachments

Attachments are sometimes difficult to sell. The reader usually wants to quickly skim through your email and then respond to your CTA. Now, not everyone ignores them, but in the long term, they are forgettable. The best plan is to include everything right into your email body. Spam filters immediately scan an email with documents attached to it. Plus, it also takes much longer to load.

Bonus Tip: Plain Text is Important Too

No doubt, complicated email features can cause an email to load slowly. This can also cause an email to get flagged as spam. With that being said, using plain text to get your point across in your marketing emails is also important. Plain text not only loads quickly, but it’s also easier to manage, against having to check for complex HTML coding to be placed correctly within the email. So try and make a habit of using more advanced email features, as well as plain text, to appease both sets of crowds.

Conclusion

So yeah, email marketing is no easy job. You might have the most innocent sales pitch ever, and still somehow end up getting flagged as spam. But if you keep up with the tips we talked about, you’ll be great in the long run.

If you ever need help with your email marketing, please connect with us through the contact form below. Our team would love to help you and resolve any concerns you may have with sending marketing emails.

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AUTHOR BIO

Author Bio: I’m Chris Wagner, Head of Content @ HostingPill. I regularly write about Hosting, Web servers, and WordPress. I have more than 9 years of Industry experience.